Ground zero green again
1 Sep, 2002 By: Ron Hall Landscape ManagementConnecticut brothers prepared World Trade Center's glass-enclosed Winter Garden for 9/11 memorial
Certain events are so mind- numbing and unexpected that you never forget what you were doing when you learned of them. What happened one beautiful Tuesday morning a year ago this month is one of them.
 The most efficient way to plant the 40-ft. palms was to use a crane to ease them into planting chambers, then blow the specially blended soil around the roots. |
Brothers Stefan, 30, and Ed Kijewski, 26, vow they'll never forget 9/11. Unlike most of the rest of us, however, they got a chance to restore what was destroyed during the terrorist attack.
New life
The co-owners of Mulchmaster Plus LLC, Wallingford, CT, were among the select contractors hired to put life - in this case, sixteen 40-ft.-high palm trees - back into the Winter Garden that was damaged when the Trade Towers collapsed. The 120-ft.-high vaulted glass atrium, which looks over the Hudson River, is located at the center of World Financial Center. It was a popular dining and shopping area for workers at the WFC's four office buildings and hosted concerts and other performances.
"It's been a great honor for us to work down there," says Stefan Kijewski (pronounced Key-s-key). "I keep thinking about it. It's constantly on my mind, and I have to work to keep myself from getting too emotional about it."
 Stefan (left) and Ed Kijewski feel lucky to have been involved in restoring the WTC site. |
They earned the job for a couple reasons: one, they had the equipment to do it efficiently. Two, they had established a good relationship with John Mini Indoor Landscape, the company that had maintained the atrium interiorscape prior to the damage and was charged with restoring it again.
Getting down to work
Using a 60-yd. Express Blower unit with 200 ft. of a 1/2-in.-thick rubber hose, they blew six inches of 3/4-in. smooth gravel for drainage (100 tons total) and four feet of soil mix (800 cu. yds.) into the planting chambers. They separated the two layers with fabric barriers. This took almost four days in mid August.
 The Winter Garden restoration project at the World Financial Center was accomplished through the coordinated efforts of many different tradesmen. |
As they prepared the indoor planting chambers, two trucks with 48-ft. trailers were roaring up I-95 from Florida transporting the eight large palms to the Manhattan site.
Although the brothers thought their part of the project would be complete after blowing the gravel and soil, they were wrong. It became apparent early the following Monday morning that using laborers with wheelbarrows to backfill around the palm's roots was taking too long. Instead, the brothers restretched the hose back into the atrium and blew the remaining soil mix around the rootballs just as the trees were carefully craned into their new locations.
"We wanted to be a part of the planting from the start," says Stefan. "The first couple of trees took a bit longer than we expected, but once we got our system going, it went very smoothly."
 One challenge the Kijewski brothers faced was finding enough space to load and unload gravel and soil from the blower truck. |
Bleak outlook
While their part of the project took just over a week, the Kijewski brothers started planning for it this past winter, when things looked their bleakest. "Imagine how it looked after Mt. St. Helens erupted with everything under a huge coating of dust," says Stefan. "Everything was open all winter and everything had to be taken out."
The brothers realized early into their planning that they were going to face tough challenges, including finding a place to park the blower truck close to the atrium and getting enough space to load and unload the gravel and soil.
 Mulchmaster workers blew a layer of round gravel for drainage into the planting hole first. |
"We had to drive the truck down a sidewalk and between trees," says Kijewski. "It was an education for us just to get the blower truck down there." Once in place, the company used a VersaLift telescopic loader manufactured by Bobcat to keep the blower supplied with gravel and soil. The material was trucked to the site early each morning to avoid New York City's infamous traffic.
Then there was the deadline. General contractor Turner Construction had to have the atrium restored before Sept. 11, 2002, when the world's attention returned to the site during a visit by President George W. Bush and other dignitaries.
"There was a saying at the site," chuckles Stefan, who finds it easier to laugh now that the job is done. "No matter what it takes, the trees are coming."
 Workers used 800 cu. yds. of soil at the site. |
Now that the Winter Garden project is over, what's next for the brothers? "We have some lawn seeding projects and schools will be needing wood chips in their playgrounds," says Stefan.
"But I don't think any of us will forget when all of this happened. I don't think any of us will forget that we got a chance to help."
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